If we didn’t already know better, this list of inactive players for the Broncos for today’s game against the Chiefs would be quite shocking. But alas, coach Josh McDaniels released two days ago the news that Brandon Marshall would be inactive.

Indeed, Marshall is among the eight players who will not dress, along with TE Tony Scheffler (benched) and WR Eddie Royal (neck injury).

You’ve got to think the Broncos publication staff might want a mulligan on this one.

As we all know quite well by now, Marshall isn’t going to be playing today, because of a hamstring injury and/or attitude problem (depending who’s side of the Marshall-McDaniels mess you choose to believe). And ESPN reported this morning that Marshall (and TE Tony Scheffler) will not be allowed on the sideline or in the locker room.

But at least fans can look at glossy pictures of Marshall in the magazine.

If even a couple of weeks ago you would have told me the Broncos would be playing for their playoff life in the final game of the season without Brandon Marshall, Eddie Royal AND Tony Scheffler, well … let’s just say I’d be very surprised.

Yet, here we are. Those three guys are out (for injuries, attitude etc, all of which we’ve written about at length), and the Broncos go into Sunday’s game against the Chiefs with a four-man receiving group of Jabar Gaffney, Brandon Stokley, Brandon Lloyd and Matt Willis.

Stokley, you certainly know plenty about (11th year in the league, 3rd in Denver; 14 catches for 284 yards, 3 TDs and 1 miracle this season) and you’re probably getting pretty familar with Gaffney by now, too (he’s second on the team, behind Marshall, with 40 catches for 519 yards, and he scored his first two touchdowns last week), but what about Lloyd and Willis?

NFL CAREER: 7th season, with previous stops in Chicago, Washington and San Francisco.

THE SKINNY: Lloyd signed with the Broncos on June 15 and has been with the team since. He made the active roster at the end of the preseason but wasn’t active for a game until last week because of Royal’s neck injury. He caught four passes for 22 yards in that game against Philadelphia, including crucial third-down conversions of two of Denver’s touchdown drives. Lloyd has good hands, a nack for making acrobatic catches and he’s got great raport with quarterback Kyle Orton — the two were teammates last season in Chicago.

MATT WILLIS

AGE: 25

HEIGHT/WEIGHT: 6-0, 190

COLLEGE: UCLA

NFL CAREER: 2nd season. Signed with the Ravens as an undrafted rookie in 2007. He played in five games his rookie year, mostly on special teams, but he did catch one pass. He hasn’t played in a game since.

THE SKINNY: Willis has been a Bronco since joining the practice squad in late December 2008. That means he’s been learning and practicing in the Broncos offense (though much of his work has been on the scout team against Denver’s defense in practice) for many, many months. Willis didn’t start playing college football until his final two years at UCLA — he was primarily a track athlete specializing in the 400 meters and in the 300+ 400 hurdles. So we might not know much yet about him as a receiver, but we know for sure that he’s got serious speed.

Hard to imagine he had imagined his team being down to only three wide receivers before halftime. That’s the scenario the Broncos are facing today against the Eagles, though, after rookie Kenny McKinley was injured and veteran Brandon Stokley was ejected.

McKinley was hurt on a first quarter kickoff return, and Stokley was ejected in the ensuing series. Stokley was unhappy that he didn’t draw a pass interference call, so he raced more than 15 yards downfield to argue with the back judge. He waved his arm in disgust, and in doing so, swiped the outstretched hand of the ref. Automatic penalty and ejection.

The Broncos are left with Brandon Marshall, Jabar Gaffney and Brandon Lloyd, who is active for the first time this season. Lloyd made his first catch of the year in the second quarter, and Gaffney scored his first touchdown on the season later on that same drive.

This all means Josh McDaniels must dig deep into his playbook and find ways to get both of his running backs, his tight ends (especially Tony Scheffler) and his remaining receivers involved, and he must do it for a team that will have to come from behind in the second half.

It’s two hours before kickoff and Broncos QB Kyle Orton is on the Paul Brown Stadium turf, glove on his right throwing hand to help protect the stitches on his right index finger, throwing passes to Eddie Royal, Tony Scheffler and Jabar Gaffney, who is catching the ball nicely despite his broken left thumb.

Orton is in the shotgun, throwing from what would be the Bengals’ 42 yard line, and he’s floating a few passes into the end zone. Broncos trainer Steve “Greek” Antonopulos is not observing Orton, so the quarterback doesn’t appear to have any issues.

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Finished with their early work, Orton and his receivers are in the locker room.

For the first time this season, the Denver media was permitted inside the Broncos’ locker room.

No complaints here. Chris Simms, Brian Dawkins, Tony Scheffler, Knowshon Moreno, Andre Goodman and standbyes Brandon Stokley, Daniel Graham and Peyton Hillis were available for comment. (So were the kickers Matt Prater and Brett Kern, but once you get past, “How’s the leg?” what is there to ask a kicker?)

Brandon Marshall and Champ Bailey passed through. Kyle Orton wasn’t afraid to hang out at his locker with the media present, although his interview session is set for Wednesday.

Speaking of which, the fact Orton is the quarterback who will step up to the podium Wednesday means the Broncos are sending the message they expect him to start the regular-season opener Sunday at Cincinnati.

The fact so many key players were available means one of two things _ One, it’s early and the players will eventually learn to rearrange their schedule so they’re not around when us media types drop in; or two, this has a chance to be a good locker room.

It wasn’t a good hang-out day for Graham and Tyler Polumbus, though. The ex-Buffs were embarrassed by their alma mater’s performance Sunday against CSU. It wasn’t so much losing to CSU as the Rams dominated the Buffs upfront.

It begs the question: How could Dan Hawkins recruit a blocker like Ryan Clady to Boise State but he can’t recruit any Ryan Cladys to CU?

Broncos rookie tight end Richard Quinn was held in jail overnight after an argument with his girlfriend resulted in an obstruction of telephone service harassment charge.

“This was an unfortunate personal situation,” said Peter Schaffer, Quinn’s attorney and agent. “However, I’m very proud the way Richard handled this delicate situation by defusing what otherwise could have been a potentially dangerous situation.

“When all the facts come out, people will find out Richard’s done nothing wrong. Richard’s No. 1 concern right now is the welfare of his daughter and to avoid any negative light brought to the Denver Broncos, Richard and his family.”

Quinn was arrested Monday and taken the Arapahoe County jail. Per Colorado state law in domestic cases, Quinn was held overnight without bond and will appear before a judge at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.

At 12:34 p.m. Monday Arapahoe County deputies responded to a ”verbal disturbance that had been physical” between Tiffany Merritt and Quinn, who Merritt described as her live-in boyfriend.

According to an Arapahoe County Sheriff’s report, Quinn’s girlfriend called 911 from a neighbor’s house after the couple got into an argument. She told deputies that Quinn “grabbed her and shook her to the ground” and took her cell phone away to prevent her from calling police.

According to the report, Quinn admitted to taking the phone, but said he only grabbed the girlfriend after she “started hitting him in the face.”

The report says that Quinn had no sign of injuries to his face. Schaffer said there are multiple scratches on Quinn’s back.

“Richard did everything he was taught to do (through various NFL rookie programs that deal with potential off-field situations) to defuse an otherwise irrational person and he’s the person sitting in jail,” Schaffer said.

The son of a former U.S. Marine, Quinn was widely regarded as a prospect of strong character by scouts when the Broncos selected him in the second round of the NFL Draft in April. He played in all of the Broncos’ preseason games and is listed third on the depth chart behind Daniel Graham and Tony Scheffler.

The Broncos will resume practice today in preparation for the season-opener Sunday in Cincinnati.

Rookie tight end Richard Quinn was arrested Monday and is currently in the Arapahoe County jail on a harassment charge related to domestic violence.

Quinn is being held without bond on a charge of harassment – obstruction of phone services/domestic violence and will appear before a judge at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.

According to an Arapahoe County Sheriff’s report, Quinn’s girlfriend called 911 from a neighbor’s house after the couple got into an argument. She told deputies that Quinn “grabbed her and shook her to the ground” and took her cell phone away to prevent her from calling police.

According to the report, Quinn admitted to taking the phone, but said he only grabbed the girlfriend after she “started hitting him in the face.”

The report says that Quinn had no sign of injuries to his face.

The Broncos were off Monday but resume practice Tuesday in preparation for the season opener at Cincinnati Sept. 13.

Quinn was a second-round pick in April out of North Carolina. He played in all of the Broncos’ preseason games and is listed third on the depth chart behind Daniel Graham and Tony Scheffler.

The Broncos have (finally) released their official list of cuts to get the roster down to 53 players on the active roster.

Because the Broncos also added DE Vonnie Holliday, the team had to make an extra cut to get to the 53-man limit. The team also will have to make another roster move by Sunday to clear a spot on the active roster for Brandon Marshall, whose suspension is set to end Sept. 6.

Well, it’s been a heck of an offseason, wouldn’t you say? And Brandon Marshall seems to be doing his best to make sure the Broncos stay in the news in upcoming days and weeks, when the rest of the NFL world starts to shut down for a much-needed vacation.

I’ll touch a bit on the Marshall situation below … but first, to borrow a line from Josh McDaniels, let’s talk about the players that were actually at Dove Valley for the team’s mandatory minicamp.

WINNERS

– WRs Jabar Gaffney, Eddie Royal, Brandon Stokely and Chad Jackson: So maybe none of these guys presents quite the intimidating physical presence that No. 15 does, but these four receivers got plenty of reps with the first-team offense through the weekend. Gaffney at this point appears to be the most versatile and comfortable in the offense, no surprise since he followed McDaniels here from New England. Eddie Royal frequently looked like the very best skill position player on the field — fantasy alert! he’s going to make A LOT of catches this year — and Stokely is his same old reliable self Broncos fans are used to. Chad Jackson might have found himself in the best position through all this offseason turmoil. A guy who signed late last season and played little for Mike Shanahan, he’s getting a lot of work now and is familiar with the offense from his time in New England. I don’t expect him to be a starter, but he could find himself a role here, especially if Marshall protests his way out of town.

– QB Kyle Orton: He’s The Man heading into training camp. This is good for him from a leadership perspective and it will help him continue to build rapport with his receivers. He wasn’t always sharp in minicamp, but it surely is a confidence boost for Orton to know his coach has enough faith in him to anoint him as the No. 1 right now.

– TE Tony Scheffler: Kudos to Scheffler for making it through an entire offseason program healthy. After spending the last two Mays and Junes in the training room or on the sidelines, it was nice to see Scheffler working at full speed. He is playing behind Daniel Graham, but did get first-team reps in 2 tight end sets.

– OLB/DE Robert Ayers: Yes, Knowshon Moreno was impressive and I expect Moreno to make a major impact this season. But Ayers got more work with the first team of any rookie. He also showed tremendous work ethic by staying late after every practice to practicing catching balls from the Jugs machine. He was on the field for a solid 15 minutes, at least, longer than all of his defensive teammates each day.

– ILB D.J. Williams: Williams is still wearing the orange “no contact” jersey as he continues to recover from offseason shoulder surgery, but it didn’t look like Williams was limited at all. In fact, he appeared to get more work than just about any defensive player because of his starting spot in the base, nickel and dime packages. He is even on the first-team field goal block unit.

– RB Ryan Torain: He didn’t take any reps, but the fact that he was on the field practicing at all makes Torain a winner for sure. He showed good mobility and the grace we all remember from last summer as he worked through individual drills.

– OLB/DE Tim Crowder: The 2007 second-round pick was basically Mr. Irrelevant last season, but he was in with the first-team base defense at outside linebacker all weekend. He came out on passing downs, though he was on the second-team nickel unit. I talked to Crowder on Friday, and he said that all he can ask for is a chance to compete, and clearly he’s been given a clean slate by the new coaching regime.

– OL Seth Olsen: The rookie draft pick took all of the first-team reps at right guard while starter Chris Kuper was excused to attend his own wedding. There is very little chance Kuper’s absence hurts his standing — all the praise for the Ryans aside, I’ve heard talk that Kuper was the line’s MVP last season — but any time a young guy like Olsen can get that much early work with the starters, it is a good thing.

LOSERS (and we mean this in the nicest way possible)

– WR Brandon Marshall: You can’t win if you don’t (or won’t) play.

– P Brett Kern: Rookie Britton Colquitt looks like he’ll be more than just a camp leg. Kern, who had a solid rookie year in 2008, could find himself in another heated battle throughout training camp.

– DE/OLB Elvis Dumervil and Darrell Reid: I was hesitant to list these guys here, but the fact is, they were both relegated to the second-team through much of the weekend. Dumervil, did, however take a number of first-team reps on Sunday, swapping in and out with Ayers. This position battle is far from over and is shaping up to be possibly the most interesting competition of training camp.

– QB Chris Simms: Now officially the No. 2, which makes him the “loser” in the QB competition. But he handled the news well, praised Orton as a teammate and player and said he will continue to work hard, which makes him a “winner” in my book.

And now, onto Brandon Marshall, who just keeps finding ways to keep himself in the news and on the airwaves.

Here’s what we know: He wants a new, big-money contract that would pay him on par with what similarly productive receivers in the league make. He wants to rehab with his own doctors and trainers in Florida instead of at Dove Valley. And he seems to be OK with forking over thousands of dollars to do so.

My partner Mike Klis reported in today’s edition that the Broncos do not want to trade Marshall and that McDaniels has been in touch with Marshall’s agent. The fact that Marshall did show up for a face-to-face meeting with Pat Bowlen, and that communication remains open between him, his reps and the team is a good sign. We’ve all seen what can happen when there’s no communication …

That said … I don’t see this as a situation where either side is ready to compromise. It makes perfect sense that the team wants to wait to give Marshall a major deal until they see how he recovers from the hip surgery (not to mention the forearm and hand troubles that continued to bother him in 2008) and if he can stay completely out of trouble for a full calendar year. At this point, Marshall is a risk, and it seems everyone but him knows it. At a time when you would think Marshall would be doing everything to take the spotlight off of himself (in light of the ESPN piece a couple of weeks ago), he’s doing even more damage to his reputation.

I asked Broncos fans via twitter to chime in on what they think and hope should happen. Here’s a sample of the responses:

From @KMA55 “He needs to show up period, he’s under contract. Until that happens the Broncos should just keep the front office quiet.”

From @esmagnus “Brandon Marshall and Jay Cutler were our best players last year. I don’t understand the sense in trading them!”

From @nickstratton “B. Marsh has no leverage with his legal and health concerns and pending CBA restrictions. Make him play.”

From @jaredstill “Bowlen should trade #15 to the Cards for Boldin; both WR’s get paid, Cards take risk of 8/16 game suspension w/ nxt BM arrest.”

From @SteveOReilly “Pay Brandon!”

From @seangui “Won’t get equal in return from trade; injury, arrest issues. Give new contract-same $ this yr, addt’l yrs as top wr w/clauses”

DENVER — Well, it’s clear now that Jay Cutler will not be joining his teammates at Dove Valley on Monday morning, and — if he gets his wish and is traded — he might never be back.

I imagine that, at least initially, this won’t go over well in the Broncos locker room as teammates find themselves in a tricky spot in coming days, weeks and months. At this point, players barely know Josh McDaniels and his new staff. Guys who have been in Denver during the off-season have had a chance to meet the new bosses, but few, if any, have spent significant time with McDaniels.

Many have, though, grown close to Cutler. He is genuinely close with a number of his offensive teammates, including Tony Scheffler, Casey Wiegmann, Brandon Marshall, Eddie Royal and Ryan Clady. Clady, Royal and Scheffler were Cutler’s guests at the Pro Bowl in Hawaii. His teammates respect his on-field talent and believe he is the best quarterback to be leading this team.

And without a clear answer at this point of who the Broncos’ new starting quarterback would be instead (Chris Simms? Matthew Stafford?), it is perfectly understandable if players are worried.

INVESCO FIELD — Greetings from Invesco Field at Mile High, though the weather outside makes it feel like we’re in South Florida and not the first Sunday in November in Colorado.

A couple of pregame notes:

– Rookie fullback Peyton Hillis has gotten his job back after being supplanted by Spencer Larsen for about a month.

– The Broncos have three players making their NFL debuts today: rookie RB Ryan Torain (No. 42), rookie CB Josh Bell (No. 34) and quarterback Darrell Hackney (No. 4). Torain is certain to play, especially with Selvin Young inactive. Bell is the team’s fourth cornerback and should play at least on special teams. Hackney is the least likely to play, and Bronco fans better hope he spends the whole afternoon holding a clip board.

– Keep an eye on Denver’s defense early. Despite all of its short comings, the defense has yet to allow a touchdown in the first quarter of a game this season.

On a personal note, this is a fun game for me since I recently moved back to Colorado after five years working for The Palm Beach Post. It’s been great to see some former colleagues and competitors. This is an interesting match-up for me, too, because the first NFL game I ever covered was between the Dolphins and Broncos in the 2005 season opener at Dolphin Stadium. I was 24 and was assigned to write a sidebar about the visiting Broncos, who had lost the game 34-10. The most memorable experience from that game was in the Broncos locker room afterward, when a grumpy Jake Plummer was quite snippy to a group of reporters, and me in particular when I asked about a failed possession (Denver had a first-down inside the 5 yard line and went with four straight Tatum Bell rushes but no touchdown).

INVESCO FIELD — A couple of quick pregame notes from here at what soon will be Obamaville.

The following Broncos are out of uniform:

– RBs Anthony Alridge and Ryan Torain. No surprised here. Torain dislocated his elbow a couple of weeks ago, and Alridge didn’t take reps in practice after straining his hamstring. Wonder how Alridge’s chances of making the squad will be affected by him missing this game.

– WR Taylor Jacobs. He’s still having headaches after a hard hit in practice earlier this week.

– C Tom Nalen. He had surgery to “clean up” his knee (Mike Shanahan’s words, not mine). His status over the next couple of weeks will be one of the more interested storylines we’ll be following.

– TE Daniel Graham. He tweaked his hamstring against Dallas last week. Tony Scheffler will start in his place.

– LB Boss Bailey. Missing his second straight game after suffering a high ankle sprain against Houston. Jamie Winborn starting at SLB instead.

– DE Ebenezer Ekuban. He’s been out of practice this week with back spasms.

– S Hamza Abdullah was on the list of “players not expected to participate” that was handed out pregame. But he is in full uniform on the sidelines, but he did not start. Stay tuned. Marquand Manuel started at SS.

DOVE VALLEY — Some sort of cyber-mystery has kept us offline here for much of the last week … but we’re back online here with the Broncos blog from team headquarters. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that Word Press doesn’t lock me out again.

The team released its first depth chart of the season today, something it had to do because of Saturday’s first preseason game against Houston. Keep in mind that this is a fluid chart, and with four preseason games yet to be played, just about everything is subject to change (OK, not the quarterback spot. That one’s secure. And that Champ Bailey has the left cornerback spot locked down, but I digress).

Here’s where things stand now, with the starter in bold, followed by the second- and third-stringers and so on. Names in italics are the ones I marked as surprises when the depth chart was first passed out this morning. I’ll discuss why after the chart.

Offensive notes: Scheffler got a star because it was the first time he was ahead of Nate Jackson in camp. Jackson had been lining up with the first-team for much of the first week. Pittman was notable because he wasn’t included at all at running back and not even in the top two at fullback. This certainly wasn’t what he was imagining when he signed here on May 28.

Defensive notes: Thomas and Webster were the surprises here. Neither was the clear No. 1 yet in camp. Koutouvides was signed with the intention that he would be the starter at middle linebacker, but this competition here with Webster will be one of the more interesting battles of camp. It seemed like Kenny Peterson would be a starter at DT, but coaches think Thomas has improved enough to earn a starting spot right now.

Specialist notes: Not surprising that Paulescu is listed as the No. 1 punter, since he is the veteran, what with one NFL game under his belt. Interesting, though, that his competition, Kern, is listed as the holder for place kicker Matt Prater.

DOVE VALLEY — Broncos coach Mike Shanahan has told players that this Thursday — yep, two days from now — will be their final day of team minicamp for the summer. The camp was originally scheduled to run through Friday, with another two-day camp scheduled for July 7-8.

We expect to hear more from Shanahan on Thursday about why he decided to cancel the final minicamp, but you’ve got to think he’s been pleased enough with what he’s seen so far to let players go for five weeks.

A few nuggets from Tuesday’s session:

– TE Tony Scheffler participated in practice but was very limited in what he did. He wore his No. 88 jersey and cleats, but he didn’t seem to do much differently Tuesday than he did when attending practice in regular workout gear last week. He did come out for a conditioning session with a team trainer about an hour after practice ended.

– While Scheffler held the play sheet and did the ever-popular “mental reps,” Nate Jackson had one of his best practices of late. He caught at least two nice balls in coverage, and talked some trash when he did it.

– Newly acquired defensive tackle Dewayne Robertson had his lower left leg and ankle heavily taped and didn’t play with the first-team defense during 11-on-11 drills. Marcus Thomas took all of the reps in his place.

– Niko Koutouvides was back with the first team at middle linebacker. Nate Webster ran with the ones on Thursday and Friday.

– For the second straight practice, rookie Garrett Hartley took all the field goal reps. Matt Prater dressed for practice but did not kick. Shanahan said on Friday that Prater was tending to a sore groin.

– How many Broncos staffers does it take to scare away a prairie dog? Not one, not two, but three. A little guy had found himself a primo spot in the defensive secondary during passing drills, where he hung out for a few minutes until a herd of staffers chased him off into the bushes.

The biggest question facing the Broncos should be at left tackle, where theyâ€™ll have to get by for the rest of the season without Matt Lepsis. He tore a ligament in his right knee Sunday and is lost for the season.

So what position is everyone focusing on? Certainly not left tackle. Or right tackle. Or any other position other than … you guessed it.

Rookie quarterback Jay Cutler completed 16-of-22 passes for 192 yards with a touchdown and no interceptions in his highly anticipated debut in a Broncos uniform Friday night at Detroit.

In his game story, Denver Post staff writer Mike Klis wrote:

“Playing all of the second quarter and most of the third, Cutler not only showed he could throw, but throw it downfield. He proved he can whip from the pocket, toss on the run and produce from a final-minute, hurry-up offense. He drilled passes to tight end and fellow rookie Tony Scheffler and he lofted a 26-yard touchdown pass to receiver David Kircus.”Read more…

Nicki Jhabvala is a Broncos beat writer for The Denver Post. She was previously the digital news editor for sports. Before arriving in Denver, she spent five years at Sports Illustrated working primarily as its online NBA editor. She also spent two years as a home page editor at the New York Times.